If you skipped this animated action comedy late last year for whatever
reason, let me tell you that there are things here that make it a must see. I
know. You've heard that one before. But there's a reason this is our FEATURED
FILM this late in the season (and also the Oscar winner for 2014). Here's the
goods:

It's about two brothers who are prodigies of robot-building. For younger
brother Hiro Hamada, it's more competition among his peers, friends and
enemies from school. His big brother Tadashi, on the other hand, is working
hard to create a robot that will be good enough to win him accolades at the
robot lab in the San Fransokyo university's robotics lab, where he works.
Which is what he does until tragedy hits, which puts Hiro into a silent
slump. He comes out of it only when he meets Baymax, Tadashi's lab
project.

Baymax is a robot the likes of which hasn't appeared in any animated feature
yet! No energy discs, glowing eyes, titanium construction, rayguns or
anything to imply aggression or, even, benign super power. Baymax is
about a whole other purpose.

He's all white, soft, malleable, rechargeable and, in terms of personality,
achingly endearing. Tadashi built him to be a healthcare robot and gave him
some hidden powers relating to that mission, such as a set of detection
devices to run tests of vital signs on his "patient."
But there are also a few secret devices that can be put to use in the action
parts where he, Hiro & his band of prodigies defy an evil genius who has
stolen one of Hiro's most brilliant inventions: MICROBOTS --little
robots that can reproduce themselves in amazing formations through telepathic
control.

In other words, the inventive originality in this movie, combined with a
virtual hero who is sweet and lovable in a sympathetic rather than
sentimental way, has given us one of those rare films that can keep you
stunned in your seat by a steady flow of new concepts as needed in the course
of a dynamic but very different action-adventure animated feature
original. That's the effect it had on me.

All right, if that isn't your idea of a good time, don't check it out. But,
if you want to read a little ...
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